When I entered the 30th Precinct in 1969 as a rookie, I soon realized that the “Irish Mafia” dominated the command structure of the entire Police Department. One of the Lieutenants was nick-named Fat Freddie and he was a terror to the Italians, Hispanics, and Blacks who were making inroads in the NYPD. His favorite words were “hey F-0h”.
One day while he was cursing me out, I took my career in my hands and challenged him. “I am a Patrolman and my name is Joe DeStefano and I work for you.” Well, the die was cast and he said, “understood, get back to work.” From that day on I could do no wrong and I actually became his favorite and he became my mentor to the chagrin of the entire command. I became known as Freddie’s boy.
Actually, he was the first to congratulate me when I was promoted to Sargeant. Later I learned that he pulled the strings to help many other officers who were often charged with unfounded Civilian complains.
One of the finest and most active Police Officers in my Anti Crime unit was Chuckie. He was a street wise cop and usually one of the first officers to respond to serious crimes. Basically, the members of my unit were to effect arrests and get on the monthly arrest sheet.
My job was to supervise and give my members a “scratch” in their daily memo book. One day as I was doing this I caught Chuckie reading a comic book. I admonished him, saying you should be reading the Patrol Guide for the upcoming sergeants exam. He replied, “Sarge, I got a photographic memory and I read it once, I got it.”
Well, he scored high on that exam and was one of my first officers to be promoted. Eventually he would rise up in the ranks to Chief. He was one of the most beloved bosses and he would receive the highest accolade in the Department, “a cop’s cop.”
Years later I met Chuckie at a retirement party, and he thanked me. I said, “what for? you had the photographic memory.” No, he said, “it’s for when you heard that I was on the Sergeants list, you made me your driver.”
Chuckie was a lifer and retired after 35 years. Sadly he died 3 months later, hardly enjoying his retirement. I saw a photo of him exhausted at the Barclay Center after the George Floyd protest. The caption under the photo simply said, “he took care of his men”. ###
Note: Here is a link to Chief Scholl's obituary.
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